Fifty-three-year-old Ira Johnson, of Penn Hills, was sentenced after pleading guilty in July to stealing the money when he was the manager of patient financial services for the West Penn Allegheny Health System from 2006 until he was fired in November 2011. The hospital group is now called the Allegheny Health Network.

Allegheny County investigators say Johnson withdrew company money to gamble at casinos in Illinois, New Jersey and West Virginia - and eventually also Pittsburgh, where the Rivers Casino is located.

Johnson tells his trial judge, "I could leave my desk and be at the blackjack table in five minutes."